Well, this might take a while. Fortunately I've been blessed with amazing good luck and an adventurous spirit that's taken me far. That being said, I've had more flops than a losing team in the playoffs. Here are some of my greatest hits.

Juilliard Auditions 2008

Diving into Life and Coming up Wet - image 1 - student project

In highschool when I still wanted to be an actor, my only goal was to get into Juilliard. I spent a year preparing and didn't even get a call back. World shattered, cried on my mashed potatoes and made new plans the same night. Suck it Jullie! Suck it life!

College in General

Diving into Life and Coming up Wet - image 2 - student project

I ended up at a small college in Farmville, VA. Not a typo, a real place. Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy my time there and I skipped out a year early with a decent theatre education, a couple thousand dollars in debt and a mild drinking problem.

Animation the First Time Around

Diving into Life and Coming up Wet - image 3 - student project

I've taught myself animation now enough to do it professionally, but the first time I tried learning Flash, I sucked. Hard. I didn't get the program and couldn't make the combobulator work with the watchacallits. I tried to launch a contest for people to choose which of my animations was best. I got one vote. Probably a pity vote. They all sucked.

My New Book

Diving into Life and Coming up Wet - image 4 - student project

And the reason I'm taking this class. I don't want to plug, so I won't mention the name, but I just published a book. 3 years of writing, 6 months marketing for the launch, a successful crowdfunding campaign, and not one person has purchased a copy. It hurts.

But, the thing about writing this out is that when each of those other failures happened, they felt terrible. World ending. Apocalyptic. But, not only were they not as bad as I thought, they guided me to amazing success. If I hadn't quit school, I never would have traveled through Europe and Asia with the amazing, weird people who've become my second family. If I'd gone to Juilliard, I probably wouldn't have branched out from acting into directing, producing, animating and being the best Boss Lady I can be. I own an LLC now making creative content that I love. The first round of animation taught me a respect for the work and sparked my interest for what I do now. And even though it's sore now, I know this failure will teach me. Like you said in the video, I'll have many more and they'll be worse, but I'm not so afraid of drowning that I won't keep diving in.

Diving into Life and Coming up Wet - image 5 - student project

Amber Lee

Aspiring to be a Superhuman

26

29